A team of researchers from four different continents has synthesized and therefore definitively made official (since it is the second time it has been synthesized) the ununseptium . It has just entered the periodic table with position 117 .
This new element in the periodic table is the second heaviest element known and was first synthesized in 2010 by a group of Russian and American scientists from the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, respectively. They did this by colliding isotopes of calcium-48 against others of berkelium-249; thus, the new element with 117 protons was generated, which marks its position in the table and its provisional name: ununseptium. Furthermore, in the course of the experiment, the laurentium-266 isotope was discovered.
The result of this new achievement of several ununseptium atoms has been published in the journal Physics Review Letters and, according to the scientists, it represents a great feat in the investigation of superheavy elements, since they are highly unstable and have required the generation of a meticulous chain alpha decay or isotope decay in seven steps, followed by spontaneous fission of the newly discovered Laurencio-266 .
This new element in the table has obtained the second position in terms of heavier elements synthesized in the laboratory. In first position is ununoctium, in position 118 of the table for its 118 protons. And, like the ununseptium, it is an unstable element.
